up rapidly with republicans, especially given president trump in the oval office. candidatesdemocratic outspending republican rivals, even incumbents across the country. you can imagine both republicans and democrats governor associations will spend north of $100 million in the next few years. us.hank you for joining >> thank you for having us. >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress,

the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. "the communicators" is on capitol hill to talk about autonomous as 5g, car's, net neutrality and write a c. >> you recently said south dakota could be a leader in 5g. how so? progressivelot of thinking people in our state. they realize the difference technology can make, especially in a rural state. become arsity has leader in the cyber field, training professionals who are being snapped up by government intelligence agencies and other cyber fields.

have a tech entrepreneur who sees the value of 5g, and has done everything he can to make it easier for companies to invest. he has tried to partner with custom east to make that investment in south dakota. a lot of other communities in south dakota, adopted an ordinance that cities could adopt and pass that lays out a template if you want to a tract 5g investment in your community, this is the best way to do it. it has to do with lowering their ears and making it easier not harder for companies who want to get involved in that business to do so. part of it is mindset, part of it is putting the right policies in place and having the leadership to recognize the value and benefits that come with 5g development. of souththe ruralness

dakota, not everywhere has broadband. >> i tell people we have 4g or lte technology, but in some places we still have 3g or nothing. it is a geographically vast state, but there are a number of programs and resources that have been made available to some of the rural cooperatives, telecom companies that serve smaller companies in south dakota that they have been able to access that has enabled them to make investment. you would be surprised across south dakota how many places you have access to good internet service. perhaps not the quality fa have in the larger populated areas, but that is one thing we are trying to cure. a lot of that comes with trying to figure out how to leverage resources available at the federal level, having the mindset and leadership and

policy framework in place that encourages people to make those investments. remnantseir leftover of the gateway corporation in south dakota? >> not a lot, gateway was a huge thing, and they had a significant foot print in our state. a lot of jobs there. not so much anymore. and the needsed are different, demands are different. if you want to be a leader in, you definitely have to have a an eye you have to have to that. 5g is more connected we you can connect more devices, speeds are theyimes faster thean are today.

people who realize what a difference that can make in people's lives. and for jobs and economic opportunities in some of our communities in south dakota. i give our leaders back then and now credit for looking to that. 5g has enormous potential to benefit the delivery of health care in rural areas. we have three major systems in south dakota that have a footprint across the state in addition to north dakota and minnesota, iowa, other states in our neighborhood. they are using the services, but 4g lte to 5g,om you are talking about lower latency and the ability to do procedures and operations the other medium that did not exist before. orther you are a surgeon

somebody treating a trauma patient in a remote area of south dakota, if you get 5g working in a way that enables that can indication occur, you can do great things. it has tremendous potential for health care delivery especially in rural states were you have big geographies to cover. >> did you get your choice? sen. thune: what happened was i decided this seek the majority whip position, and the rules do not allow you to be the leader or whip, i had two years left before i timed out of the committee. i still am able to chair a subcommittee, so i will chair the telecom subcommittee and work with the chairman on a lot of these issues. i am still interested in 5g,

spectrum availability, autonomous vehicles, and a lot of things we started working on, and privacy, which has a potential to be a big the bipartisan abig competent. nationalo have some data privacy standard or law that will protect peoples personal information. >> how do you envision this? sen. thune: the big issues are going to be reaction. -- are going to be preemption. california has a law that has a lot of people worried, and others moving in. if you want to avoid having to comply with 50 different standards in different 50 states, it is important for congress to be heard from on this. one other issue in addition to

will be whoon issue has rulemaking authority and enforcement authority. is it the ftc? there is a lot of discussion around that issue, but i think these thorny issues are not easy, but if you can navigate that with a package that is balance, it is something we can legislate on. we need to, the american people care about this. i do not know where the houses on this now, speaker pelosi represents california. 48 out of the 200 and 30 democrats are from california. california has their own law, and they will want to keep it. you really need a national standard otherwise you will have world as in the tech have to comply with california, texas, florida, who knows, and it is important we have a national standard. seem to be democrats

upset with some of the tech companies and the loss of privacy. sen. thune: that presents an opportunity because the haverats who traditionally been closely allied with silicon valley are as outraged about these breaches as republicans are. topresents an opportunity find a path forward, a bipartisan path forward that can lead to a major legislative a compass. a problem the american people care deeply about and want to see congress act on. in the absence of that, states will step in and do their own thing. the better solution long-term is for congress to be heard from on important legislation like this. >> have you written in an autonomous vehicle? sen. thune: south dakota would

be a great place to test those out because we have a lot of wide-open space. it is a remarkable technology. it is unnerving to be driving on 395 and allow the autonomous feature to kick in and see the speeding up,elf, slowing down, changing lanes. that is where the technology is moving. the reason to do it is because we have thousands of the tallies on america's highways every year , and if you can take human error out of the equation, we can save lives. i am excited about it. we have framework that puts guardrails around the technologies. and i really think it is another issue congress needs to be heard from. iteither better keep up with or we will be left behind. >> the president signed an executive order encouraging

artificial intelligence. sen. thune: there is some neat new technologies, ai is one of them. it has the potential to transform the way we live. to look at the opportunities advance in so many areas, and artificial intelligence like everything else i'm a it is one of those things, it has to move forward in a steady way. people over time will adapt and get more comfortable with some of those technologies. the fact the a ministration recognizes this is where we are headed is a good thing. the use of artificial intelligence in decision-making and creating more data is going to be a good thing for all of us. >> does cyber security keep you awake at night? sen. thune: it does, it is a real concern. gte that are trying

to get their chips into our 5g development is really concerning because some of these foreign countries and governments have designs on this country. it presents a national security risk. i do not think there is anything around that, it is something we have to be wary of. the white house, federal agencies need to work together along with the private sector which has some of the best ideas how to prevent those attacks from occurring in the future, and he put strategies in place to prevent them. it is a real threat. from a national security standpoint, i remember when i was on the services committee, this was a new form of warfare. there were lots of questions about what are the rules of engagement, what is a proportionate response, and if so what he tries to attack us and you have these constant

cyber attacks on our infrastructure, how do we respond to that? those are questions our national security community is grappling with, and they need to be because these threats are real. the more information out there, the more people know about us and particularly our national security secrets, the more concerning it is. congress hasears, been behind technology by a couple years. is that still the case? sen. thune: i think so, it is hard to keep up. people out there are smart, and even if you are trying to defeat the bad guys, we have one issue our committee dealt with that i am interested in, i got a bill with ed markey from massachusetts that has to deal with robo calls. every time you come up with a

strategy or solution that can defeat the current way the bad actors come up with another way around it. technology is changing and people are looking for new ways to defeat us. i think the government has to do what it can to anticipate what will happen next. we will not a was right, but we need to be thinking like they do. that is why the government has hired more young people who understand and are adept at cracking and breaking down some of the codes used by the back guys. >> john soon is the majority south dakota from and chair of the communications and internet subcommittee. thank you for your time. sen. thune: thank you, glad to be with you. >> the last time we talked to

you, you were in the majority, what happened and how will it make a difference? backlatta: we want to get in the majority. we want to get back. we have a lot of issues we can work with democrats on. can move forward together on a lot of legislation. >> what are one of those issues? rep. latta: rural broadband is important for our part of the country. in northwest ohio, folks do not have access to broadband. it affects everyone going to ihool, it affects farmers, sponsored legislation that went into the farm bill. we will make sure broadband is out there for all americans, and make sure what we heard from the

sec, -- of the people will be a access higher speed. areas in my district where people want a business, they cannot because if you are not connected today, that is one of the areas we can work together. i served as one of the cochairs on the broadband caucus, we want to make sure it gets out there, we want everyone to have this. northwest ohio is part of your district. rep. latta: when you look at the northwest section, i represent the largest farm communities in the state of ohio. and i have 60,000 manufacturing jobs. all these are tied together today.

welch and i cochair a group. we have to make sure we can bring this to people. [inaudible] commented, we all have pockets that we need to get filled in so everyone can have it. from downtown toledo to rural areas of ohio. some have great access and others have none. net neutrality debates, did you hear from constituents? there is a lot of confusion about what net neutrality is. we have this legislation recently, i introduced one, i am the republican leader on the

telecommunications subcommittee on energy and commerce. i reintroduced the democrat chairman's bill. we want to make sure we do not have the blocking. they haveare able these issues out there. , the way the this democrats want to go and the former fcc chairman, taking us back to 1930 law which is ma bell. we do not want more government regulation. said, -- we are looking forward to working with the democrats to pass net neutrality legislation said you do not have this

constant question what will be out there in the future. i saw the letter you sent to the democratic chairman, is that going to be something that will be looked at in this congress? rep. latta: this is what we want to have. the republican leader on energy legislation, his was making sure we get legislation. comes, it was legislature on net neutrality signed into law. democratic governor. sure that is not in their because that is a problem. you have stifling government out there, and we want to make sure innovators can innovate.

>> what have you heard back? we have extended the invitation to work on it. privacy.of talk about states are working on this individually. is this something you see in our future? rep. latta: in the last congress we had meetings on privacy, and one of the big issues, we cannot have states doing their own thing. you cannot have 50 state officials coming up with this, you have to have a national standard. california has enacted legislation that most people i talked to say, we do not want that legislation.

we have until the end of the year to get this done. we had a privacy hearing already, and people coming in to testify. we want to make sure the consumers out there are protected, and we have a standard that everyone knows what it is. we need all of the groups to come together. we need them at the table. a lot of times he will not get 100%, but we need people to come together, sit down, and say this is where we are going to go. we have to have a standard nationally. >> are we moving in the direction of europe? there are a lot of problems. that is europe, not the united states.

that is one thing we look at. in there, ands the testimony today i asked a , we havewhat happens criminals and bad actors out there. they can disappear. we cannot do that. when you look at what is happening, we would have a situation where we will say smaller individuals and companies -- it is the reverse of what is happening. it is hurting the smaller folks out there across europe. in the united states we want to make sure everybody can compete not just the big guys. >> one other issue has been talk about antitrust with facebook etc.

what are your views on that? rep. latta: when you look at what is happening with where they are going, the european law , we want to establish our privacy that will fit what we do in the united states and how we operate. we will find out what they have done in europe, maybe going too far. when you cannot find the back guys, the bad actors, how do you catch them and say to law enforcement, we cannot help you? has been several months since mark zuckerberg testified. what are your views on that? he spent five hours in the committee, and we heard from a lot of big companies.

there, what we have out we have to have transparency so people understand what they are doing. a majority of people do not understand where information is going and how it affects your privacy. after the testimony, you heard big names say, i am off, i am getting off. we have to have it so people are, and the rules they can be protected. and that they can get out of it. as we go forward, the public will be informed. sprint-t-mobile is on the board, i do not know if congress

has a role, but do you have an opinion on the merger? rep. latta: we had to hearing on the merger, and i pointed out that this is going back to the regulators. the regulators have to make that as to what will be best for the consumer. last time it was digital commerce and consumer protection. here we arerend looking at to make sure the consumer is protected, and they know what is going on. it never has left the regulators, but we will go from there. your views -- rep. latta: it will be a benefit

to the consumer. forward, isators go this something that will be a benefit? if so, then we go forward with it. , then theybad idea will rule on it. >> the future of autonomous car's? we had great cooperation. i chaired the subcommittee last time. i think we had wonderful cooperation on both sides of the aisle. meetingsd me over 300 on autonomous self driving vehicles in the last congress. we're seeing a trend where deaths are going up in traffic accidents. there's a trend going the other

direction, a lot of distractions out there. but, when you look at, we want to make sure that safety comes first, safety first, safety last, safety always. cyber security and privacy. and the other thing we want to make sure that technology is developing the united states. we we do not want to say it is being imported from china. we can do it right here in the united states. at the same time you look at some of the benefits not preventing accident but also folks out there that are visually impaired like my mother. she gave up her drivers license the day i turned 16 when i got her driver's license. she was dependent on a family member to get her summer. that would help the folks out there with a disability. also, you look at the senior citizens. they might not have mobile access like from anything from a cab to a bus in their community.

give them the benefit to remain mobile. we have got close to the end. we got a bill passed out of committee 54-0. it passed on the floor. by a voice vote. something this technical pier 1 over to the senate. we worked with them up to the 12 hour of the less congress. but we just could not get it over the line. >> what were the concerns>>? rep. latta: there were multiple things from multiple individuals. th senate operates different way than the housee. passly need a vote to something for a majority. i'm going to start working on this because it is very, very important for the community, for all those individuals, for safety, for the disabled, for our senior citizens and making sure they grow the technology in the united states. we we want to get it forward into the sun and work with our colleagues to get this thing past. again, i think it is going to be

a boom out there for the, for safety and for all the other reasons i've mentioned, that it 's going to help the driving community. host: bob latta, a member of the energy and commerce committee. ranking member on the tech subcommittee. rep. latta: appreciate it. ♪ >> c-span "washington journal" live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday morning, young americans for freedom national chair talks about issues important to young conservatives and how they view the trump presidency. then political stephen shepard on the history of election do overs in light of a new election being called in north carolina's nice congressional district. the public lands alliance looks at the natural resources management act passed by congress this week. be sure to watch c-span's "washington journal"iv